


Kintsukuroi

by the17thmuse



Series: Song and Ash, Sword and Ruin [2]
Category: Naruto, Original Work
Genre: AU of an AU, Applicable up to chapter 4 of Changeling, Eldritch, Gen, Implied Resurrection, Kidnapping, Unreliable Spelling Changes Because of Language Differences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-08 07:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the17thmuse/pseuds/the17thmuse
Summary: So KeanBlade said: "Um. Maybe they should just abduct Madara, He's probably pretty upset with things at this point and wouldn't mind terribly getting away. Aliyas could just pop down look around and go "you, my new pet/child/toy wants you, you're coming with me."And now "Changeling" has an AU. Hurrah.To reiterate Lilili_cat: "Stop spawning bunnies."I beg of you.





	Kintsukuroi

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KeanBlade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeanBlade/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Hidden in Stagnant Pools](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20920742) by [Lilili_cat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilili_cat/pseuds/Lilili_cat). 

> (I really should be packing up for vacation right now but this really won't go away. KeanBlade, this is all your fault.)
> 
> Also, you need to read at least the first three or four chapters of Changeling for this to make sense.
> 
> Kintsukuroi, more commonly known as Kintsugi, is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

_Aliyas_ steals Madara in the moment between moments, leaving his office and a few adjacent rooms (including their occupants) frozen in sheets of ice. Once thawed and interrogated, none of the victims can recall anything distinctive. No shinobi, no foreign chakra signature or residue, just that split second of sheer terror, the scent of blood and rotting flesh and sound of chains. Then, nothing.

A few days later, some of those shinobi go insane and the rest become increasingly despondent. They all eventually die either way.

(It takes a while for Konoha to realize the Uchiha clan head is missing. Some form of genjutsu-that-wasn't that made then forget, kept them unaware. And it frightens the more devout of the shinobi. Because strange things have been happening, things that have been disturbing the spirits since the White Oni died, and none of them have a clue what it means.)

Meanwhile, _Aliyas_ is very much stuck between annoyed and impressed. The human (with hair voluminous enough to rival _Sibiras_' human avatar) hasn't stopped trying to fight out of its grip and pelting it with fireballs and strange double-sided daggers. It has been debating between slowly constricting him into silence or freezing him solid while it travels in the space-between-spaces, and ends up choosing Option C.

_Tem'dul_ looks at _Aliyas_ dragging in its unconscious tag-along human pet? _Am'alya_'s new companion? and raises a brow. 

"He has to hunt his own food if we're keeping him," he says, crossing his arms.

#

Madara gets assigned half of cooking and weapon maintenance duty once his abilities becomes known. (_"Some bastardized marriage of _vita_ and _anima_" according to his snake-dragon-thing kidnapper, which makes him bristle, "It's called chakra, the yang and yin components respectively, damn it" once he learns the language._)

As of now, he doesn't understand them yet, and it takes an embarrassing amount of pointing and gesturing but he manages to figure out they're all alone on a moon made of ice. Kidnapped while doing paperwork. By a snake...dragon...lizard...thing...something, whatever.

Then stranded. Stranded. On a _moon_ made of _ice_. (Which is possibly the stupidest most random thing to happen to him, ever. And he has Hashirama for a best friend. _What even is this?_)

And he hates that he likes the peace and quiet, despite missing his brother and clan. 

(But the peace, he likes the peace so much. Konoha has just been so unbearable lately.)

The Uchiha gets sick, of course, from exposure to a literal alien environment. (The legendary leader of the Uchiha Clan, brought low by disease. Somewhere back home, the gods must be laughing.)

And as the hours become days he is wracked with fever and drifts in and out of consciousness, and the snake-dragon-thing that took him (called Ariyah...Ah-riya-su...or something—_he is not calling his kidnapper by name if it's the last thing he does_) looks even more monstrous during the worse days, and smaller and prettier and more human-like during the better ones, like a very horrible drug-induced dream.

At some point, the efforts of the other human (_Teme-du-ru?_) just stop working, and he knows with certainty that he is going to die there. In some foreign world with only strangers for company. And he pushes the man away as best as he can...as he just...

...slowly drifts...away...

...towards...

...the light...

Then something dark and vaguely human-shaped drags him back. Claws tearing his skin, anchoring him with so much pain and cold. Blood and tears dripping onto the wounds, claiming every bit of him. Silver-white and red fire burning through. 

He tries to look up, tries so hard, and his heart just. stops. beating.

(_Why...do those eyes...look so familiar...?_)

.

.

.

.

...He wakes up and remembers dying. (_He did...die, didn't he—die? So how is he alive? Is he alive? Or is he just dreaming?_) Shakes off the sensation of being studied, but it wouldn't go away.

So he turns...and sees red feline-like eyes watching. He knows those eyes. Knows only one person who once possessed eyes like those. 

It's impossible but...

"Tobira—" and his voice fades, throat drying up at what he sees.

The eyes are the right color of the blood red he spent more than half his life hating, but the shape and size are...wrong. These eyes are a little rounder and bigger, and definitely looking far younger than he ever recalled seeing. So he looks again, and takes note of all the similarities and the differences.

Not-Tobirama resembles Temeduru the most, in the dark (no longer silver) feathery tresses long enough to brush their shoulders, the harsh foreign tilt of the nose, the sharp cheekbones, the moonlit paleness of skin, and the bulk of muscle. But he also sees the snake-dragon-thing in the fullness of the lips, the razor knife not quite hidden in the smile and the slight androgyny of the face, waist and hips.

Madara finally spots parts of what he recognizes as belonging to Hashirama's little brother, the willowy height and sturdy strength, the practiced flowing motion of the way they carry theirself. And that...that was it. It wasn't much, barely anything at all. 

(He feels a pang in his chest, recalling that there wasn't anything left of the White Senju back in the village. That not even his remains had been spared by the elements.)

And he tries to sit up, to say...something (he can't remember what), but then vertigo hits, and Temeduru is suddenly there, helping push him back to a recline while the older man calls Not-Tobira "Amalia" and _"mein klein mondblume"_ and proceeds to fuss over his...child. Who is still holding onto him while simultaneously trying to be as physically far as possible. (Like trying to avoid something or someone who cannot be avoided.)

"...Didn't even let him keep his name," Madara manages to slur out in a pitiful complainant whine. (Ugh. He feels so weak.)

Then Tobira—Ama-riya (he reminds himself) adjusts themselves, letting him lie on their lap, their hands trembling minutely while humming a song Madara will later remember hearing Kagami sing once, and runs their fingers through his hair.

And the Uchiha drifts off to sleep.

#

Temerdul looks at Aleas accusingly. "Why him of all people?" Knowing too much effort had been used in going through Amalla's corrupted memories just for this particular human to be considered 'trivial'.

Aleas cocks its head, the equivalent of a shrug, and watches its offspring and their patient with the predatory smugness of an experiment made successful. 

"Amalla needed to learn to heal," it speaks matter-of-factly. "I merely gave them a very good incentive to do so." It brings up a clawed hand, palm up, "If the human dies, they learn," and moves another hand on the same level. "And if he lives, they...learn." 

Different outcome, different pains, same lesson. 

"Win-win," mutters Temerdul. 

**Author's Note:**

> Welp. Madara got downgraded from 'pet' to 'medical learning tool'...oops.
> 
> _mein klein mondblume_ is German for "my little moonflower". My headcanon being that German is the closest equivalent to Temerdul's native language.
> 
> Also, some things that never made it here because it would take the story away but are very important:
> 
> \- _Am'alya_ didn't want anything to do with Tobirama's memories or everything related to that mess. They kept all the PTSD and honestly didn't want to find out the specifics of 'why'.  
  
\- As a _necromance-remembrancer_, (or a combination of a _worldsmith-starforger_ and a _healer-fleshripper-torturer_) most of their powers are rooted in the memories of both the dead and the living, the more powerful the better. And _Aliyas_ considers it a huge waste of potential that _Am'alya_ possesses enough emotionally-charged memories to become a very formidable necromancer. So if _Am'alya_ refuses to bring up the past, then _Aliyas_ will bring the past to them.  
  
\- _Aliyas_ had three possible candidates: Butsuma, Hashirama and Madara. In order to cause a powerful emotional response (and hopefully some flashbacks) but while the first was dead, both the first and the second caused such a huge mess of emotional ties compared to the third it decided to take the safest option. Hence, Madara.  
  
\- Then either it did not tell _Am'alya_ or it told them and they didn't want to do anything about it, so _Aliyas_ didn't give Madara some essential vaccines to cause him to go sick.  
  
\- Madara seeing _Aliyas_'s form changing is him actually looking past the 'veil' (so to speak) the closer he is to death. He actually got a good look at both of _Am'alya_'s forms, the human one and the eldritch one.  
  
\- _Aliyas_'s species don't have the slightest clue that there is a difference between a healer and a torturer. So the healing technique _Am'alya_ used is actually a torture technique, keeping the victim alive by essentially returning them to that eternal limbo between living and dying. (Sorry, Madara.)


End file.
